Summer is a time of fresh fruits and vegetables in the South. And if you are a Black Southern Belle, gardening is probably taking up a good portion of your time. Most of us have memories of eating fresh tomatoes from a garden and cutting up the harvest to save for the winter stews. If you have not quite mastered your green thumb we are here to help. Today we are featuring our favorite Southern A�Garden Books for a Black Southern Belle. These southern garden books can give you the help you need to prepare your garden for future years to come and also look beautiful on your coffee table.
African-American Gardens: Yards In Rural South
Much acclaimed upon its initial publication in 1992, this book was the first extensive survey of African American gardening traditions in the rural South. For this reprinting, author Richard Westmacott has written a new preface in which he describes the traveling exhibit based on the book and compares his original research with his recent observations ofA�A� gardening practices in the Cayman Islands.
Places for the Spirit: Traditional African American GardensA�
laces for the SpiritA�is a stunning collection of over 80 documentary photographs of African American folk gardens a�� and their creators a�� in the Deep South (Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina). These landscapes have a unique historical significance due to the design elements and spiritual meanings that have been traced to the yards and gardens of American slaves and further back to their prior African heritage
American Grown: The Story of the White House Kitchen Garden and Gardens Across America
In April 2009, First Lady Michelle Obama planted a kitchen garden on the White Housea��s South Lawn.A� As fresh vegetables, fruit, and herbs sprouted from the ground, this White House Kitchen Garden inspired a new conversation all across the country about the food we feed our families and the impact it has on the health and well-being of our children. A�A�Now, in her first-ever book,A�American Grown, Mrs. Obama invites you inside the White House Kitchen Garden and shares its inspiring story, from the first planting to the latest harvest.A� Hear about her worries as a novice gardener a�� would the new plants even grow? Learn about her struggles and her joys as lettuce, corn, tomatoes, collards and kale, sweet potatoes and rhubarb flourished in the freshly tilled soil.A�A�
No Space Hidden: The Spirit of African American Yard Work
Winner of the 2006 James Mooney Award Dating from their earliest habitation in North America, people of African descent have used visual and material means to express their ethical values and their beliefs about the intersecting worlds of matter and spirit. In No Space Hidden, Grey Gundaker and Judith McWillie combine oral testimony, firsthand documentation of sites and artworks, insightful analysis, and over two hundred photographs to explore African American devotional arts centered in homes and domestic landscapes. Focusing primarily, though not exclusively, on the southeastern United States, the book examines works ranging from James Hampton s well-known Throne of the Third Heaven of the Nations Millennium General Assembly (now part of the Smithsonian collection), to several elaborately decorated yards and gardens, to smaller-scale acts of commemoration, protection, and witness that African Americans have created in and near their homes.
Comments
Michiel is a Black Southern Belle living a lowcountry life. I love all things fashion, home decor and southern! When I am not running around doing fun stuff for Black Southern Belle, I live in antique stores and have a minor obsession with historic homes :)
I must add at lest one of these to my collection… thank you for enlightening me..
Author
So glad you like them! Nothing like a southern garden!